Canucks: Arturs Silovs's knees should be fine, says Latvia goalie coach Irbe (2024)

Latvia national team goalie coach Arturs Irbe says Arturs Silovs should be fully recovered from his knee inflammation soon enough and thus should be ready to start the 2024-25 NHL season for the Vancouver Canucks.

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The former Canucks netminder told Latvian news outlet Delfi that the young Canuck had pushed himself too hard this summer.

“He had a very productive and busy summer, but unfortunately he got overloaded somewhere. You have to learn from it, you need breaks, but Arturs is a person who likes to work and who likes to feel a healthy fatigue,” he said, as translated from Latvian with the help of Google Translate.

Silovs had been working since mid-June to prepare himself for the upcoming NHL season, as well as this weekend’s Olympic hockey qualifier in Riga, where his home country is taking on France, Slovenia and Ukraine with a spot in the 2026 Olympics in Italy on the line.

According to Irbe, at some point earlier this month Silovs felt some discomfort in his knee but apparently rather than slowing himself down, he tried to work through the discomfort.

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“Like any hockey player,” Irbe said.

Someone finally urged Silovs to take a break, which he did. Perhaps he should have rested longer, since it sounds like the discomfort returned.

Silovs then took a longer break, Irbe said, which seemed to do the trick, clearing up his health.

But this break to recover set back his preparation, which eventually meant he wasn’t 100 per cent before this weekend’s games. Obviously the Latvian coaching staff held out hope that he’d be able to play some role this weekend and held off naming their final squad for the tournament until almost the last moment, but eventually it was clear that it would be in Silovs’ best long-term interests for him not to play this weekend.

If it had been a playoff game at the World Championships (or the Olympics themselves, or presumably the Stanley Cup), Irbe said Silovs maybe could have played.

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“There is no need to risk a months-long chronic injury now. We decided that it would be much fairer if the one who is 100 per cent ready plays,” he said, referring to the other three goalies Latvia had available this weekend.

Irbe noted that Silovs’ style of goaltending is very demanding on his knees.

“So he’s dealing with constant knocks,” he said. “That style of play and that kind of micro-injury doesn’t allow him to do all the moves he needs comfortably. It can be overcome within reason, but it can affect the game when it becomes a chronic problem.”

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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